Welcome Back: Hepatitis: A largely underpublicized killer worldwide

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington recently published a study exemplifying how rampant and prevalent of an epidemic hepatitis is on the global scale when compared with HIV.

The Institute was able to plot the amount of HIV deaths occurring per hepatitis death and vice versa in an effort to display which countries saw hepatitis or HIV to be more of an issue. They additionally were able to classify what countries had a high and low ratio of either virus. And results were astounding.

For instance, in Mongolia, for every HIV death, there are 88.4 hepatitis-related deaths. In Egypt, for every HIV death, there are 107.7 hepatitis-related deaths. In Iraq, there are 193.4 hepatitis deaths per HIV death. These countries are classified under the high-ratio demographic of the hepatitis virus.

In countries located in the heart of HIV-infected zones such as Angola, Congo, Uganda, Sudan and the similar, the situation is evidently different. South Africa, for example, poses a disconcerting rate of 58.9 HIV deaths per hepatitis death, the highest according to the study. Central and southern Africa seem to be the exception to news of hepatitis being more widely affecting than HIV. Africa has dealt with HIV for decades, instilling upsetting rates of HIV deaths per year.

HIV might be the world’s best known virus simply because of the advertisement and recognition it has received globally. From concert benefits and fundraisers, to television commercials and celebrity support, the virus and its effects are plastered across campaigns to prevent its spread. 

The increased attention this virus has received is beneficial: Those who are sexually active should have the ability to obtain widely available information about an issue to hopefully gain a better understanding of its effects. What is problematic, however, is the lack of attention other viruses receive — hepatitis in this case.

And here is where an issue exists: This research alone proves that hepatitis is a rampant and debilitating virus that affects a vast majority of people across the globe. It might not be the virus that affects the most people, but it is the virus that kills more people than HIV in most countries. 

What is truly frightening is that the hub of the HIV advertising movement exists in the United States, a place that sees more hepatitis deaths per HIV death. To be precise: for every HIV death, there are three hepatitis-related deaths.

Yet, the hepatitis advertising movement seems hardly as prosperous as that of the HIV movement, thus, painting an especially dismal series of events. Those who attempt to be safe and promote good health through educating others on such topics now arise doubt in the minds of others: Are they educating our society with the wrong information? Well, the information might not be wrong, but what it is, is inapplicable to countries such as the United States.

Nations such as China (10.9 hepatitis deaths per HIV death), Germany (22.9 hepatitis deaths per HIV death) and Britain (20.7 hepatitis deaths per HIV death)  — all of which are influential global powers — need to conduct the same applicable information as the United States with regard to educating the populace on hepatitis. 

Ultimately, with efforts to increase awareness about such a virus, one can assume that the issue will become less of an actual issue in terms of educating society about it. Tackling the virus from a clinical standpoint is simply a topic for another day, and one that is much more difficult to challenge.

Overall, hepatitis is a virus that needs serious attention. The study, reporting figures from data collected in 2010 — the latest data analyzed thus far — found that 1.445 million died from hepatitis that year, with HIV killing 1.446 million people. 

Hepatitis is not a virus to neglect, and one can assume that the death count will only rise if the virus is not advertised as much, if not more, than HIV.